Lean spell led to demise of adjacent cinemas

I READ with interest the response by Colin Marsh to your previous article featuring the Savoy cinema and totally agree with his comments (Mailbox, August 8).

It was the Floral Hall, in Belgrave Gate, that was always known as “the Floral flea-pit” in my youth. This lay closer to the Clock Tower than the Savoy, which, by contrast, always seemed clean and well-maintained.

I think the “flea-pit”, together with the Palace Theatre – either adjacent or very close by – were both demolished in the late 1950s, following a period in which both struggled to survive.

Robert Kemp, Kings Norton